


The Blood Hunter

by luvr4fantanim



Series: The Blood Hunter Universe [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Backstory, Canon-Typical Violence, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Mighty Nein as Family, crazy blood rituals, fuck you lorenzo, my take on Molly's past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-16 11:11:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15435798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luvr4fantanim/pseuds/luvr4fantanim
Summary: It starts with the end of a life. If one could call it that.After Lorenzo’s death and the Mighty Nein reunited, they’re faced with the aftermath of Molly’s resurrection ritual... with some unforeseen circumstances.A take on the “complications” that a resurrection ritual for Molly might have now that the cast has mentioned that it could happen.





	1. The Resurrection

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve always been big on the whole “Bring Molly Back” train. And I still am. Or at least I will be until I either get a definitive answer that the M9 won’t try to resurrect anymore (that is when ALL of them are back together again not just the current ones, I’m a very big fan of the head cannon of them going to the grave once they’re all back together to pay their respects in case they decide to not try anymore) or that they try and fail because of such and so reasons. 
> 
> I find it more interesting to see the repercussions of what happened and how it affects the Nein instead of just assuming that this is the last we hear of Mollymauk. (Of course my biggest hope is that he DOES come back but I’m ok with simply seeing the repercussions that he has in the current plot line and learning more about his past with or without him.) 
> 
> So, I was happy to learn that Molly’s spirit is willing to come back. And that Taliesin is happy in case the party decides to go the route of a full resurrection campaign. What I was mostly interested in was seeing what he meant that a “normal” resurrection might not work because of... “complications”. 
> 
> And so this story was born. It more than likely be a huge AU once the story reaches this point (or if it even reaches this point at all). It essentially encapsulates what I hope will happen, as well as my take on Molly's backstory, and it lets me let out the stress I have while discovering what actually happens in the canon. 
> 
> I have it all written out already (wow me finishing a multi-chapter before I post it? I know.) and I wanted to post it before Thursday started in case they start deviating from the path where I think they’re heading to in the next few episodes. (Who knows they might have a chance to try resurrection and see that they fail or they might spend the rest of the days that they have or they might decide to not do it anymore or they might just bring him back. It’s hard to predict with critical role just what will happen.) I'll post every new chapter every two or three days.
> 
> It’s not exactly a happy story, but I think it’s a hopeful one. So, I hope you guys enjoy!

 

It starts with the end of a life. ...If one could call it that. 

 

Beauregard felt herself smile when Lorenzo’s head rolled towards her after Yasha had, oh so kindly, removed it from his body. She never considered herself to be the type of person who would feel glee at the prospects of killing somebody, but experiencing death first hand usually has a funny effect on people. 

 

_ He _ probably would’ve agreed with her. 

 

Roll and roll the head went. And time seemed to slow down as she turned to look at the rest of her group. Her friends? Her family. 

 

Jester’s face, still dirty and bruised from the mistreatment she received in these last few days, was staring at it silently as it rolled along, an unsettling somber expression on her face. Tears were starting to spring on her eyes but she made no motion to recognize them, much less stop them. 

 

Fjord had a calm expression, quite similar to the one he gets before gunning down somebody with his magic. He puts a hand on Jester’s shoulder, whether an anchor for himself or for her that was unclear. 

 

Roll and roll it went. 

 

Nott was glaring at it. Fists were tight around her crossbow and her eyes fighting back tears. Sometimes, Beau thinks, she looks much older than her age, but this time was one of the few that she actually looks young. 

 

Caleb had an unreadable expression, but Beau suspected he had seen many gruesome deaths in his past. There’s a small flicker in his eyes, a ghost of the past that he once had, that enables her to see that he’s quite pleased with the result and regrets not burning the man to death. Beau’s not quite sure how she feels about that flicker yet. 

 

Roll and roll it went. 

 

Yasha was the only one breathing hard. Her eyes still containing the last remnants of her rage as she cried freely. She had been crying since the battle started and Beau suspected she wouldn’t have stopped even if it meant killing Lorenzo with her bare hands. 

 

Beau puts her hand on her shoulder. Yasha flinches, but she doesn’t pull back. Beau considers it a small victory. 

 

Roll and roll it went.... until it hit a wall. 

 

A small breath... 

 

And the world explodes in feeling. 

 

Beau doesn’t remember crying that much, but she remembers feeling the wetness on her cheeks as Jester crushed her in a hug, soon to be followed by the rest. They seemed to lay there for an hour. A day. An eternity. 

 

Then Caleb breathes. 

 

“There’s still a tiefling we should visit.” 

 

Beau knows which one he means, but the solemn note of his voice meant that he also caught the double meaning of his statement. 

 

And off they went. 

 

* * *

Ophelia Mardun is attractive.

 

If she felt  _ he _ would disagree with her previous thoughts, he would  _ definitely _ agree with this one. 

 

Of course, attractiveness aside, that doesn’t make her be less of a jerk sometimes. 

 

“While I am quite pleased with the work you have done -believe me I am- this does not mean that you can immediately ask for a favor in return. You have essentially  _ no _ reputation.  _ No _ name for yourselves for me to trust.” 

 

Beau bit her lip and held Yasha’s arm, who looked ready to take out her sword and carve her a new one. 

 

“But, ma'am. Surely you can make this one exception-“ Fjord began. 

 

“I make no exceptions. This is not out of selfishness or out of cruelty. It simply is due to security. Accomplishing one mission does not suddenly turn you into trustworthy people! Who is to say you won’t take one of my clerics? Who is to say you won’t sacrifice them for your own personal gain? Things like these are not uncommon in the Run.” 

 

She heard Caleb say something in Zemnian to her, but from the looks of her expression he didn’t have the effects he desired . 

 

Beau feels a tug at her robe and she looks down to a pair of familiar yellow eyes. 

 

“What are we going to  _ do _ if this doesn’t work?” Nott asks, a little helplessly. 

 

“It has to,” Yasha growls at her side. 

 

Beau clenches her fist. She was starting to suspect that maybe it’s time for more action and less talking to get the results that they want, but she stops once she notices Jester step forward from beside Yasha’s other side. 

 

Through tears she says, “Please... in the name of Traveler... the Ruby of the Sea... please take whatever name you wish but we just need your help.”

 

Ophelia stops arguing and her face morphs into one of surprise. 

 

“Did you just say... the Ruby of the Sea?”

 

Beau feels the knot in her heart unwind a little. Maybe there was still some hope, but now all she could think of, with a certain degree of annoyed fondness, was how  _ he _ would’ve found it hilarious that it would take a well known courtesan’s name to get help for his resurrection. 

 

How appropriate. 

 

* * *

On the way there, Caleb answers the cleric’s question that 5 days and 16 hours with 37 minutes have passed since... well since he passed. He’s standing by the cleric with Jester, who can’t seem to take her eyes off the grave, before casting his paw to begin digging.

 

The cleric looks young and briefly terrified of them as he’s preparing for the ritual. Beau doesn’t quite blame him. She must be sporting quite the face of intensity. She doesn’t even want to consider what expression Yasha was showing. 

 

She feels a hand on her shoulder as Fjord’s voice comes from her side,”Stop making that face. It looks like you’re about to punch the living socks out of him.”

 

“Will that make the ritual go by faster?”

 

Fjord sighed, “You know... I don’t think it works that way.”

 

“Well you don’t know that,” Nott piped in, “Maybe an arrow to the butt will make him go faster.”

 

“Ah. Well no, I don’t think-“

 

“I can just hit him with my sword-“

 

“Not you too, Yasha.”

 

“-see how that goes.” 

 

“Alright, stop.  _ Stop _ ,” Fjord pinched the bridge of his nose as if he were begging the gods for patience. Beau could feel a small smile tugging on her face, despite the circumstances. She had missed these types of discussions. 

 

“We’re not going to attempt  _ anything _ . I mean it -  _ Nott _ , I said I mean it- until this fine gentleman completes the ritual-“

 

“Um!” The cleric pipes in and they all turn to look at him, ignoring the body that was currently at his feet and the newly dug up hole beside it as best as they could.  _ His _ coat was still fluttering in the wind on the post. 

 

“I believe it is time,” the cleric announced before kneeling. “Now is this your first time in doing a - never mind your faces answered that for me. You’ll need three tributes to bring him back. It doesn’t matter what or whom, but it must be something that you consider to be a tether to this world. The spirit must be willing to come back if this ritual is to be successful.”

 

After a brief pause, he examined each of their faces and, seemingly satisfied, he began talking again, “Very well. We shall begin.”

 

He muttered a few words and wisps of wind seem to gather around him, the air seems to shimmer around the body before a slight hum permeates the air. Out of the corner of her eye, Beau thinks she can see Jester scribbling notes on how to do a ritual in her sketchbook. 

 

“Alright, who wants to do the first tribute?”

 

Unsurprisingly, Yasha steps forward. She opens the book of flowers that she always carries so delicately and she picks one, the first one Molly ever gave to her. 

 

“You always showed me how to find beauty in the most unsuspecting moments. ...Despite the fact that neither of us suspected we were going to grow old and grey, I think we both wanted that. And I still want that, if I can,” she leans down and places the flower in his palm, “Please come home, Molly. There’s more flowers for us to pick.”

 

She was crying freely now and Beau didn’t think she had ever seen her talk for that long and with that amount of confidence in her voice. A part of her was proud. 

 

Jester stepped up next. 

 

“Heeeey. Molly. We’re back you know? The other three managed to rescue us so there’s no need for you to stay there,” she sniffles and proceeded to untie a ribbon from her horn. 

 

“You were always so gentle with me and it was nice to see a fellow tiefling this far from home. You were always fun and kind and I just.... I wish I was there when this had happened. I promise I’ll be there when this happens again and-“ she ties the ribbon to his horn, “You always understood when I was  _ trying  _ or when I needed to laugh. So please just try some more with me? My horn jewelry still needs your tips every now and again.” 

 

There was a little silence as Jester began crying. Fjord came over and put his hands on her shoulders and she turned around and sobbed into his stomach. 

 

Beau clenched her teeth, she knew what she was going to do. 

 

“Hey, obnoxious one! I’m still here, you fucker,” she kneels down and takes out his tarot cards, “I was always annoyed at you. I still am. I still think you’re kind of a dick and that you talk too much.... but you were also my friend and I just...” she felt tears in her eyes. She feels like she’s been crying a lot this past week. 

 

“I know you were a bullshitter and that you conned people but... you always had good intentions. And I admire that. And I believe that it’s a good policy to have, leaving a place happier than before. So can you do it one more time? Leave this place happier than before and come play this game again with me. You’ll have a hell of a story now I bet.” 

 

And she left the cards on his chest. 

 

The cleric nodded, seemingly somewhat approving of the tributes offered. Beau let herself feel a bit more hope as Molly’s body seemed to lift and glow and... 

 

She saw  _ it _ out of the corner of her eye. 

 

A little black smoke emerged from the center of his chest and it looped around and around to the cleric, whose eyes widened and gasped and-

 

The body clattered to the ground again. And there was silence. 

 

“ _ Was _ ?”

 

At Caleb’s voice, Beau immediately snapped and grabbed the cleric by the scruff of his neck. 

 

“Start talking.”

 

“I-I-I don't-“

 

“I said.  _ Start _ .  _ Talking _ . “

 

“ _ That _ wasn’t normal, it didn’t look normal. Was it supposed to happen?,” Jester looked so confused. 

 

“I- I don’t know! The ritual was going well!”

 

“Oh really,” Yasha looked furious. Beau can almost see the black wings sprouting. She heard Nott cocking an arrow on her crossbow and Fjord releasing one of his hands, as if in preparation for a spell. 

 

“Yes.  _ Yes _ ! It was some really good tributes and- and it should’ve worked. It should’ve-“

 

He stopped suddenly. And Beau shook him. “What? What?”

 

He turned to look at her. “Where did you say he was from?”

 

“Why the  _ fuck _ does that matter?”

 

“It’s just - listen to me!” he grabbed her hand that was slowly going to squeeze his neck. “I recognize those eyes!” 

 

Beau paused and looked at what the cleric was pointing. It was Molly’s red eyes tattooed on his body. The ones that were there before... well before Molly was Molly supposedly. 

 

“What?” 

 

The cleric looked up at her, “It's easier if you bring him with me, there’s somebody back at the estate that can confirm what happened here.”

 

* * *

Yasha didn’t mind carrying the tapestry with the body. Beau took the coat. It felt freezing on her skin, but it gave her a strange sort of comfort as they passed through the threshold of Ophelia’s place to where the clerics reside.

 

The one leader, or at least she looked like the leader since she appeared to be the most decorated one, oversaw the body after they laid him out in front of her. They were currently whispering to one another and Beau’s patience was quickly wearing thin. 

 

She was considering maybe throwing something at them to make them acknowledge their presence, when the head cleric turned to look at them. She was a delicate looking half-elf dressed in white, with pale skin and dark hair. Her eyes reminded Beau a bit of Caleb because of the color, but the familiarity stopped there since there was a bit of coldness that Caleb’s eyes had seemed to lack in recent days. 

 

“Where did you... find this man?”

 

“He’s our friend,” Jester piped in, “and well, technically, he found us.”

 

“He was traveling and invited us to see a show,” Nott piped in. 

 

“What my companions mean to say,” Fjord began when he saw the cleric’s unsatisfied reaction to these statements, “is that there was a point in our journey where we all found each other because we happened to be at the right place at the right time. Afterwards, it was in our best interests to all travel together.”

 

“But do you know what he is? Where he comes from?”

 

“What does it matter?” Caleb looked serious, “He’s still our friend and we still want him back. Now, are you going to  _ help _ us or not?”

 

The cleric bristled a little at his tone, but said nothing to reply to his jab. Beau wanted to clap Caleb in the back because she’d give anything at this point to annoy this person some more. 

 

“... you should get out of this place. This person is not somebody you want to be  _ involved _ with in this town. They only bring trouble.”

 

“Who’s  _ they _ ?” Beau asked, tired of this beating around the bush bullshit. 

 

“Who do you think? The Order. Now, please, get out.”

 

* * *

“What a load of dicks.”

 

Afterwards, they decided to go to Keg’s newly acquired place and told her the most recent developments. Beau felt that “load of dicks” was only putting it mildly. 

 

They were currently in her bottom floor, with his body currently in one of the spare rooms upstairs. Keg had made a face initially, but then took a look at the rest of their desperate faces and let them in regardless. 

 

The group was silent now, carefully mulling what the next best step would be for them. Even if it meant that-

 

“So... what are we going to do?” The familiar tone of Caleb’s voice reminded her of That Day in the field when he asked her the same question and they decided to go after the missing three first. She did not particularly liked the memories that it brought, but she was happy to note that this time the words were said without the slight waver he had That Day. 

 

Fjord sighed, “Well, what are our options?”

 

“We can try finding someone else...” Nott suggested, although she winced as she said it. She knew just as well as the rest that finding one quickly was probably a futile trip if they did not figure out what exactly was wrong with the mixture of resurrection spells and Molly in the first place. 

 

“I mean... yeah. That’s true that’s an option,” Fjord continued. “It’s not... I mean... if we’re being realistic it’s not-“

 

“Don’t say it, Fjord,” Jester whispered. Tears had sprung up in her eyes. To Beau it seems as if she had been crying for a long time now. “Don’t you  _ dare _ say it.” 

 

Fjord bit his lip, a hand going up and stopping before it got to his growing tusks. 

 

“He’s right, Jester,” Caleb said softly. “We might just have to face the inevitable and-“

 

“But we can’t just simply, give up!  _ He _ wouldn’t have! Molly would definitely-definitely-“

 

She was hiccuping now, and Nott went over to hug her. Beau locked eyes with Caleb for a moment. She knew that about a week ago, she had just been in Jester’s shoes. Now after seeing the prospects and having a week to think about it... it wasn’t less hurt, but she could think more rationally now. 

 

“Jester,” she felt herself say, “It’s not like we didn’t try-“

 

“Well then we should try  _ harder _ . We can still try! I don’t understand why you guys want to just- to just-“ 

 

She cried freely now and nobody said anything for a while as the situation sunk into their systems. 

 

Beau turned to look at Yasha. She seemed to be crying as well, more quietly than Jester, in a corner, but she also seemed to be having a hard time accepting what was happening. She was biting her lip almost skin through and Beau wished that she considered herself gentle and empathetic enough to get her to stop doing that. 

 

Fjord went over to Jester, kneeled down and took her hand, the one that Nott wasn’t currently holding to try to calm her down. “Listen, Jester… I understand what you mean but you’ve got to see the big picture there’s just simply nothing much we can-“

 

A small thump was heard upstairs. 

 

Both Beau and Fjord locked eyes with each other and immediately scurried upstairs. If she was right, and she usually is, the noise was coming from  _ that _ room. She was faster than Fjord and managed to get the door open only to see a figure in a black cloak looking over the body of Mollymauk Tealeaf.

 

Beau didn’t think, she just took her staff and immediately went for it, but the figure seemed to be nimble enough to dodge out of her way and turn to look at what seemed to be the rest of the Nein plus Keg standing in the doorway. Beau felt the familiar figure of Yasha beside her, but she put her arm out to stop her from potentially killing their intruder.

 

“Look pal,” Beau started, “I don’t know who the fuck you are, or what you want to do with our friend there, but you caught us at a very bad fucking time and unless you want to be liquified where you stand, I suggest you start fucking talking.”

 

She heard Nott’s crossbow get ready, the familiar swoosh of Fjord’s weapon and saw Yasha standing tall and proud with her broadsword at the ready. Beau half hoped that this guy would just let them pummel him because she  _ really _ needs to beat something up right now. 

 

The intruder opened their mouth, and Beau was surprised to hear a rather delicate voice seep through. “Believe me when I say, that I mean you no harm.” They lifted their hands up in mock surrender.

 

“I just wished to see if the tales were true… That you had one of  _ us _ in your midst.”

 

“One of… us?” Caleb asked slowly.

 

The figure smiled, “Ah… It seems you don’t know. It’s understandable this one here was quite the… challenge. Well then, if it’s alright with you, I’ll gladly take him off your hands.”

 

Yasha put her sword out, blocking the pathway from the figure to Molly. Their smile did not waver despite the hulking, and frankly rather terrifying, figure of an angry aasimar barbarian in their path. Beau felt a shiver go through her. This guy was not playing.

 

They turned around, “You don’t know what you’re dealing with here, but perhaps I can offer you some answers. The Order is not prone to stoop so low to do nonsensical violence, we’d rather resolve this in a more… peaceful manner.”

 

The figure straightened, “Perhaps you shall see reason. We’ll be at the red building on the east end of town. Be there before midnight. I can assure you that we mean you no harm.”

 

“I’m sorry, I believe we never really caught your name,” Fjord said slowly, he spared a small glance at Beau. She nodded and started inching towards the guy every so slightly. 

 

“My name is of no importance. We are but one Order. And we are supreme.”

 

And before Beau could knock him with her staff, he vanished seemingly into thin air. 

 

“ _ Scheisse _ .”

 

* * *

“I don’t like this.”

 

Caleb sighed as he walked beside Beau, “ _ Ja _ , I don’t like this either.”

 

They had decided to split the party: a team to go visit the place and a team to guard Molly. They weren’t sure that the Order or whatever wasn’t going to strike again tonight and, despite Keg’s insistence that she should be fine on her own guarding the body, they decided to leave Yasha and Jester to aid her. They were initially reluctant to leave Jester behind in case they needed a healer, but she argued that it might be worse if Yasha were left on her own and that she had the ability to cast a long distance message in case things go south and they have to go into hiding. Caleb decided to leave Frumpkin behind as well and had given him instructions to find him if that were the case. 

 

Beau could tell that he wasn’t comfortable with the situation and based on the way he kept grabbing at his cloak. He missed his cat. 

 

“Do you really think that they could help us? I mean, don’t you find it strange that we just hear of this ‘Order’ until now?”

 

“Beauregard, I think everything that has happened today could be classified as ‘strange’. But the facts remain: Mollymauk couldn’t be resurrected because of something external, clearly both the clerics and the intruder from earlier seemed to recognize at least  _ some _ aspect of him and that for as long as we knew him, we really didn’t have any idea where he came from or who he was beforehand.”

 

Caleb turned to look at her, “After all that, I really don’t think that something like this is so strange."

 

Beau grimaced, “Well, when you put it  _ that _ way…”

 

He gave a small chuckle, more a noise coming from his mouth than actual laughter, “I don’t really think there’s any other way to put it.”

 

Beau gave him a friendly nudge in response, causing him to stumble slightly.

 

“We’re here,” Fjord announced, pointing at the big red building that seemed to be looming in the corner. 

 

“Do you really think we’ll find answers here?” Nott asked, already taking a swig from her flask. 

 

“Well, there’s really no other way of finding out is there?” 

 

And they walked in.

 

* * *

Weirdly enough, Beau thinks, shady stuff  _ always _ happens underground.

 

They were led to a basement, into a room where more cloaked figures loomed in the shadows. On top of some sort of stage sat a figure that seemed to have a more maroon colored cloak than the rest of them. The person who led them left their side to go whisper something to their ear. The figure in the maroon cloak stood up and put his hood back, and Beau was hit with a wave of nausea. 

 

It wasn’t the horns, or the tail that she noticed after, it wasn’t the familiar purple curly hair or the red eyes, it was the smile that did it. The same smile that she had seen grace Molly’s face whenever he faced an enemy. The smile that looked so gentle when he directed it towards one of them, now being thrown at them in the worst possible scenario. Logically, Beau could see that it belonged to a much older face, and that the purple hair had actually some strands of grey in it, but she could see the resemblance in it. 

 

She could tell the others did as well since Nott gave a small gasp and she felt both Caleb and Fjord stiffen at the sight of him. 

 

“Welcome, Mighty Nein, to The Order!” He extended his arms in a motion so nostalgic that Beau could almost see Molly’s figure doing the same beside him. 

 

Fjord was the first one to snap out of it, “T-Thank you for allowing us this audience. … Mr?” He paused, not knowing how to address him.

 

“Call me Aalam. I’m the leader of The Order.”

 

“Right… Aalam, thank you for allowing us this audience. We came here looking for answers since you appear to have some business with a friend of ours.”

 

He chuckled, “From the looks of it, I believe the correct way of putting this would be that you have business with  _ us _ .”

 

He seemed to gauge their facial expressions before continuing, “Ah, I see an explanation is in order. I do apologize for you all to be dragged into this unfortunate family feud.”

 

“Family?” whispered Nott, unfortunately not quiet enough because Aalam smiled.

 

“Yes,  _ family _ . Lucien had always been such a complicated person. He never quite liked playing things by the rules no matter how much I insisted things be done the  _ right _ way. He has -oh I mean  _ had- _ such great skill and talent and he let it all go to waste because of his own whims.” 

 

Beau could feel herself clenching her staff. This fucker had a tone that reminded her of her father. 

 

“And Lucien is… your son?” asked Fjord.

 

“Ah yes, biologically he is my direct descendant. Not that it matters in this Order. Everyone here is considered my sons and daughters”

 

“Right. Well it doesn’t explain why you suddenly decided to gather interest as of now.”

 

“Can’t a father desire to see his own son’s body after death?” 

 

“Funny, usually fathers desire to be close to their own son  _ before _ such event happens.”

 

Aalam paused af Fjord’s accusative tone and gave him a blank stare before smiling once more. 

 

“I guess we’re not the most…  _ conventional _ family then. ...Well, Lucien ran away when he was around eighteen. Quite a ruckus he caused around here saying that he was going to build a new Order to ‘repair’ this one. He was quite naive to fully understand the dealings that we had around here and why we did it.”

 

“What sort of dealings?”

 

“Well,” he gave a brief pause, “our expertise, as you might guess, based on your experience in observing Lucien’s own abilities, is the hunting of monsters and undead. Something that being so far away from the protection and safeguarding of the Empire is strictly necessary. But in order to carry this out efficiently and effectively, we need to study them closely.  _ Very _ . Closely.”

 

He gave a grand gesture around them, “All of this was created for the protection of the outlaws here at the Run. Quite a trade, is it not? Our only conditions for carrying this out… was that we simply let the Run, well, be the Run.”

 

Beau felt disgust run through her body. “Does that mean,” she began, “that you’re essentially turning a blind eye on whatever happens in the Run?”

 

Aalam gave her a wide grin, showing all of his canines, “Business is business, my dear. Sometimes you get stuck with families, others... with Shepherds.” His grin dropped suddenly as he stared them down.

 

They froze, all of them started gearing up for a fight, before he backed off, as if his grin had never left his face.

 

Suddenly, Beau understood what Molly as Lucien had meant to do. “Your son… didn’t quite agree with your policy did he? Not quite the _model_ _son_ you would’ve wanted.”

 

“That’s right. He didn’t understand or accept what it meant to run something like this and have the liberties we possess. Everything has a price in this life. Ours just meant… deciding to selectively pay attention to what was happening around us.”

 

For some reason, Beau felt a small desire to laugh. It seemed that, aside from Molly’s own fear of his past, Molly was still Molly. Even in a past that he did not wish to know about, he still wanted to make the world better than how he originally saw it. 

 

Aalam looked at each of their faces, one by one, as if gauging the weight of his words. “I can see that this is a lot to take in. No matter, I can have you escorted out and you can think about this overnight. I’ll be here at midnight. I  _ expect _ you make the right call.” 

 

And with that he waved them off, put his hood back on and walked to the back of the room. From Beau’s perspective, the shadows appeared to swallow him.

 

They were led out in silence. Every single one of them appeared to still be processing the information that they had just learned about Molly and the implications of what could be done next, as they walked away from the building. 

 

Then, Beau felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand up and she whirled her staff around-

 

“ _ Wait _ !” 

 

Beau doesn’t really regard herself as a person with much control, but the familiar purple horns and red eyes on a female face made her pause. 

 

“You fucking people really have got to stop surprising us like this,” she declared. 

 

The girl looked younger than Molly, not by much, but she carried the same poise and nimbleness that he appeared to have in every step that he had taken. 

 

“I do apologize, but I had to catch up to you as soon as I heard your conversation with my father.”

 

This time, none of the members of the Nein were surprised with the implications of that statement.

 

“My name is Belladonna. I’m Lucien’s sister.”

 

“ _ Yes _ we gathered as much,” Nott piped in.

 

“Do you have any business with us?” asked Fjord cautiously, deciding to ignore Nott’s comment. 

 

“Yes… Well more of a solution, per se.” She paused for a second, as if to consider her words.

 

“You know we really don’t have all night,” Beau pressed, already tired from this family drama that reminded her so much of her own. 

 

She looked at Beau, before sighing and starting to speak, “Lucien was always the prodigy in the family.  _ I _ was the disappointment, which is why I never really wanted anything to do with him for a long time. I always thought he was rather foolish and idealistic. So when he started the Tomb Takers or whatever the name of his ridiculous group was called, I became a member by order of my father.”

 

“You mean to tell us that you  _ spied _ on your own brother?” Caleb asked.

 

She winced, “I guess… that’s one way of putting it, yes. I was the one… who recommended the person who performed the ritual that ended up with him being buried in the ground.”

 

“…  _ What _ ?” Beau felt herself say. 

 

“It was… intended to be the ultimate elevation of ‘the mind’ or whatever. It was a painful ordeal to go through, with all its cuts and slashes. But it would make one with our abilities… More ...susceptible to the realm of the dead that we so desire to study. I didn’t expect the caster to actually…  _ kill _ him. Much less curse him.”

 

“Did you just say…  _ curse _ him?” Caleb’s eyes spelled that he was both furious and horribly intrigued by what the tiefling said. 

 

“Yes,” she nodded, “It essentially led him to be… ‘half dead’ I suppose. Never really fully alive.” 

 

Caleb started muttering to himself, “Of course… Since some resurrection spells work with living souls instead of undead, some of them could backfire as a technicality.”

 

“There was always a 50/50 chance that Lucien would be back since the Tomb Takers erupted into chaos. So, I gave the order to scatter them to avoid useless murder by the Order. I didn’t… expect him to come back.”

 

“If you resent your brother so much,” Beau started, “Why are you even helping us?”

 

Belladonna’s eyes were watery but angry as she turned to look at Beau, “My father doesn’t care about  _ family _ . He doesn’t care about anything except his valuable ‘research’ and selfish motivations. After Lucien was gone, he- he was interested in the curse that that castor had done on Lucien… So he repeated the same with my own mother. She didn’t… she didn’t survive.”

 

Tears started flowing down her cheeks, but she looked angry, “I’m tired of being forced to work under him. I’m tired of seeing so much death around me from his so called ‘experiments’. I’m tired of being his puppet. If you are as good as you say you are, then maybe I can help you bring Lucien back if you help me take care of that monster. Quid pro quo,” she had a certain maniacal gleam in her eye as she said it.

 

“How are we even sure you won’t double cross  _ us _ ?” Fjord pointed out, his voice skeptical. 

 

She extended her hand with a scroll, “This is a necromancy spell I’ve been studying. I can do a bit of magic on my own, but I assumed based on our research from your fight with the Shepherds that you have quite a few castors on your ranks. This spell is used to preserve a body in case they need more time for a resurrection.” 

 

Beau didn’t take her eyes of her as she gingerly took the scroll before handing it to Caleb, whom she could already see was rushing to cast Identify on it to confirm the contents. He nodded once it was done and Beau turned back around. 

 

“That spell will  _ only _ preserve the body, you’ll have to attempt another resurrection on your own, but if you’ll want to get rid of the curse first. You need to pay a visit to the person who cast it: the necromancer that lives up the mountains.” She hands Beau another scroll, which Beau reveals to be a small map.

 

“If you get rid of the necromancer, you get rid of an important asset of my father.”

 

“What about your end of the deal? Seems to me that all these things are for  _ our _ benefit. Not that we’re complaining. But it seems a rather unfair deal for you,” Fjord commented.

 

She looked at him briefly before putting the hood of the cloak back on, “Oh… you’ll know when you’ll have to act. The Order does not forgive people meddling into our business. The first appearance would be a warning, the second an action. I’ll give you guys enough of an opening for you to take care of the rest.”

 

And she vanished into the night. 


	2. The Necromancer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After receiving information from an unexpected source, the Mighty Nein take the first steps to remove the curse from Molly's body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How about that new character??? Haha
> 
> I'm glad to say that I was quite happy that Taliesin is back at the table. So, in honor of his return, here is the next chapter!
> 
> Caleb's perspective in this mess was quite interesting. And I'm excited to see the aftermath of this whole arc in all of the Nein!

Caleb found himself unconsciously moving Molly’s hair once more as he placed the copper pieces  and salt onto his eyes.

 

After getting back to Keg’s, he left Fjord, Beau and Nott to what they learned to the group and quickly retired upstairs to study the spell scroll in more detail. It wasn’t a terribly hard spell nor did it use expensive or hard to find components, but he had never been fond of necromancy and it’s uses before, which was the reason why he didn’t know the spell in the first place. 

 

He quickly muttered the arcane words needed and a small glow erupted from where he was touching Molly’s head and spread to the rest of his body. He seemed to be shining in the somewhat dark room and Caleb couldn’t help but let a small crooked smile appear in his face at the irony of it. 

 

_ Shine bright indeed, circus man. _

 

He stared at the face for a little bit, stiffness was already present in the body and he had an unnatural hue to his skin. His vision slowly swept his tattoos until he stopped at the red eyes that seemed to be the source of the current trouble. They looked to be strangely glowing as well and, despite the loss of pigment to his skin, they still seemed to be the exact same shade as when he was alive. Despite his knowledge of people in the Empire, he had never quite met somebody with abilities such as the ones Mollymauk had presented. So, he didn’t have the faintest idea that such abilities came with a cost. 

 

Of course Molly seemed like the type of person to go through something like  _ this _ impulsively.

 

“It seems like even before, you still loved to create chaos wherever you went.” There was a certain light fondness in his tone that Caleb himself was not expecting, and immediately denied existed in the first place. 

 

_ I need to hear you say it. _

 

He sighed before standing up from his seat beside the bed and headed downstairs where the party meeting was being held. He assumed that by this point they had gotten the rest up to speed. 

 

“-stand why are you hesitating to let us go?”

 

“Because its a stupid idea, sweetheart! I think by now you’d learn to stop attempting to carry out stupid shit like that!”

 

Caleb frowned at the raised voices and was greeted with the sight of Beau and Keg on opposite sides of the table staring each other down. He went to Nott’s side and nudged her, she didn’t seem surprised to see him. 

 

“What is going on?”

 

“Well, it turns out that Keg might have some more information about the necromancer from her days with the Shepherds. But she doesn’t believe it’s a good idea to go to confront them directly.”

 

“Since when have any of our decisions been considered ‘good ideas’?”

 

“That’s what  _ I _ said!” 

 

“Oh Caleb, you’re back!” 

 

At Jester’s words, everybody turned to look at him, making Caleb feel slightly uncomfortable with all the attention being directed at him. 

 

“Did it go well?” He turned to look at Yasha and the concerned frown on her face. 

 

“ _ Ja _ , the spell worked just fine.” At his words her shoulders sagged in relief. 

 

“I told you he could do it,” Nott announced proudly, making Caleb’s ears turn a bit red. 

 

“Well, it really isn’t that complicated of a spell,” he muttered. 

 

Fjord gave him a small smile, “Regardless, nice work, Caleb. To update you on what’s going on, it seems like Keg here has some more information about the necromancer we’re so interested in.”

 

Keg glared at him before sighing, “It’s not much and I’d classify them more as rumors than  _ actual _ information. But I have heard that she’s quite fond of raising undead and has a few of them at her place.” 

 

“What she’s  _ refusing _ to tell us,” Beau interjected, “is the reason why she won’t let us leave to go after that caster.”

 

“I  _ told _ you that It’s a very bad idea. You don’t just go rampaging up the mountains looking for somebody like her. We used to  _ avoid _ that region out of fear after she had settled in there.”

 

“That doesn’t mean that-“

 

“I think what she means, Beau,” Fjord interrupted, “is that we need more information. We need a better plan if we want to gain the upper hand in this fight.”

 

Everybody was silent for a little while, deep in thought. 

 

“We could just inform ourselves more,” Caleb suggested. “Maybe other Order members know more about this necromancer.”

 

Keg grimaced, “That would usually be a good idea. But they’re hard to track. Nobody from the Run knows where their actual base is located, only places where they have seen them operating.”

 

“But we  _ do _ know where they’ll be next,” Beau said, eyes locking with Caleb who suddenly realized her idea, “That jerk told us he would be expecting us tomorrow!”

 

“That’s it? Should we try finding Molly’s sister?” Nott asked. 

 

“I don’t know if I trust everything she said,” Fjord pointed out, “And If she’s as important as Belladonna says she is, it’ll be difficult to get to her without other members noticing.”

 

“We could just roughen up a few of the ones posted outside,” suggested Beau with a shrug, “One of them might know something.” 

 

“Because that’s always  _ such _ a good idea?” Nott said sarcastically. 

 

“Yeah, I mean wouldn’t that make the leader of this thing kinda mad?” Jester pointed out. 

 

“I think  _ that’s _ an understatement,” Keg commented. 

 

There was a brief silence before Caleb spoke, “Well, it’s not like we’re full of good options and it’s not like we like these people.”

 

Keg looked at them incredulously, “You do realize that this would make you guys walking targets after this?”

 

“Eh. That’s nothing new,” Yasha stated. 

* * *

Fjord, Beau and Nott were the ones picked for this task as the rest waited at Keg’s. Nott was able to keep an eye at a range to back them up and message them in case something happened. Beau would be the one to sneak and knock the guy out as Fjord disguised himself as the member and continued the rounds until Beau was done interrogating.

 

Caleb was sitting in the room with Molly’s body as he anxiously petted Frumpkin, silently counting out in his head the multiple things that could go wrong. So far he had come up with 26 different scenarios- 

 

He jolted when he heard the door of the room opened with a slam and saw Jester peek in with an apologetic look on her face. 

 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make that much noise. Am I interrupting anything?”

 

“ _ Nein _ , it’s alright you can come in.” 

 

She smiled a little and Caleb felt a pang go through his chest at the realization that he hadn’t actually seen her do that in a long while. Jester walked up beside him and stared at Molly’s body being currently surrounded by the light of the spell Caleb had cast. She reached out and gently stroked his curls. 

 

“It was my own fault, you know, getting captured. I shouldn’t have left camp to attempt to go on a stroll with them in the first place.”

 

She continued watching Molly and stroking his hair as she spoke, “I should’ve been there when this had happened. If I hadn’t decided to go with Fjord then maybe, maybe-“

 

Her shoulder started shaking as she started to cry. Caleb clutched Frumpkin’s fur for a bit before ordering him to climb onto Jester’s shoulder and nuzzle her face. She started petting him with her free hand. 

 

“It wasn’t just your fault. We all bit off more than we could chew in this mess.”

 

“But I’m supposed to be  _ the _ cleric,” she turned around quickly and now Caleb could see the tears streaming down her cheeks. Frumpkin jumped from her shoulder and onto the ground, startled by her harsh movement. 

 

“I’m the healer of this group. This was my job and I  _ failed _ . I failed him. I failed us. I  _ failed _ !” She started rubbing her eyes, tears falling down incessantly as she cried. 

 

Caleb reached out and gently grasped her hand, “I think we  _ all _ failed him in some way. But even if we did, it’s not stopping us making it right.”

 

He looked at her in a brief and rare moment of full on eye contact, “We’re  _ going _ to make this right.  _ Ja _ ?” 

 

Jester nodded frantically, “ _ Ja _ ,  _ Ja _ ,” she said through a watery smile.

 

He patted her hand gently before letting it go. “If anything, he hated learning anything about his past so much, that he’d probably consider it a relief that he was out for most of it.”

 

He hadn’t realized how much he had missed Jester’s laughter until she gave a small giggle at that. And that kind of thinking made him pause for a bit. 

 

_ Caleb. I want to hear you say it.  _

 

“We’re back! Come downstairs! You can reply to this message!” A familiar voice rang in his ears, startling him. 

 

Jester noticed it, “I take it they’re back?”

 

“ _ Ja _ . They’re waiting for us downstairs.”

 

Jester nodded as she walked towards the door before pausing for a second. 

 

“Caleb?”

 

“Mm?”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“... Let’s go.”

* * *

 

Faster than Caleb would’ve liked, they’re out of the city and into the close mountains nearby. Snow was falling a little around them, as they followed the map given to them by Belladonna towards the mouth of a cave. 

 

Keg had insisted in guarding the body. She had pointed out that, if they really wanted to go through with this, they’ll need all their strength to even have a shot at the necromancer. Then she shooed them away, announcing that they’re gonna have to do this fast if they wanted to catch the Order by surprise and that every single one of them owed her an expensive drink. Caleb had left Frumpkin behind just in case they needed to be guided back to her. 

 

When they reached the opening of the cave, they were immediately met with a powerful stench of decay and rot. 

 

“Do you really think somebody could live  _ here _ ?” Nott asked, pinching her nose and turning away from the entrance. 

 

“I don’t know,  _ schatz _ . It usually takes a specific type of person to be a necromancer,” Caleb said through a sleeve of his cloak. 

 

“I think this is finally going to be someone that smells worse than  _ you _ , Caleb!” Jester announces, which prompted chuckles around. 

 

Caleb rolled his eyes, but he was comforted by the fact that going through a cave with potential dangers was familiar territory for them. 

 

“Well then,” Fjord said after a brief moment, “shall we?”

 

* * *

“I was wondering what all the ruckus was about. But I didn’t expect...  _ this _ ,” the necromancer giggled, “I have to say I’ve yet to include orcish and angelical blood to my collection.”

 

Necromancers on Caleb’s good days still manage to make his skin crawl. Even in his Academy days he could tell he wasn’t a fan of this area of magic, despite the potential uses of their studies. This one -a half-elven woman who seemed far too young to have a sickly pale color to her skin and sunken dark eyes- managed to make his fingers spark with an itch to cast a fire. The cave seemed to be filled with an array of failed experiments and corpses, a perfect example of the type of magic that made Caleb feel a little bit of disgust. 

 

He cast a glance at the Nein. They were still up and running despite some minor complications with traps and an array of undead creatures which had caused both Nott and Fjord to look slightly worse for wear. They could probably still take her. 

 

“We actually came here to talk to you,” Fjord started, attempting to straighten from where he was holding his injured right side to fully glance up the stairs at the necromancer. She stood in the middle of what appeared to be a small study inside the cave. “We were hoping to gain information about a ritual you might’ve been a part of.”

 

“My dear, I’ve done many a ritual. But it still doesn’t excuse you to come to my home uninvited. You could’ve just asked.” 

 

“Funny, I don’t think any of the people who came in here had been  _ asked _ to participate in your little  _ experiments _ ,” Beau snarled as she gripped her staff tightly. 

 

The necromancer smiled, “Well, it depends on your perspective, doesn’t it? In any case, I believe you’re overstaying your welcome.”

 

She snapped her fingers and trap doors beside them opened up, revealing more undead. Caleb felt the fire spark in his fingers in response. 

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t easy.

 

With a constant barrage of “easy to kill but never ending” army of undead and her spells, this necromancer was quite the challenge. 

 

_ Verdammt _ , Caleb thought as she deflected another one of his spells with her shield. The both of them seemed to have gotten a bit away from the rest of the group since she seemed intent in picking him out first once she saw where his talents lay. 

 

“Has anybody ever told you that you have quite the talent with spells?” She purred. 

 

He ignored her as he quickly dodged a Poison Spray directed towards him. 

 

“Hmm. Not quite the talker are you? No matter. It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen such a colorful array for my experiments. Have you never given it much thought to study this area of magic?”

 

He sent a Firebolt in her direction, which missed as she jumped in the other direction laughing. 

 

“ _ Rude _ ! Fine. I’m glad for this display of color. The last one I had that displayed  _ such _ a nice shade was this rather handsome purple one...”

 

This caused Caleb to stumble and let him be victim of a Thunderwave that sent him reeling to the wall. He gasped and thought he heard Nott screaming at the distance. That was a rather bad hit, he had to get away and close to Jes-

 

“He had been a rather good experiment. Quite a piece of work I did with him. Shame that his group never realized that he was actually alive after the end of it...”

 

Caleb stopped trying to sneak off, “ _ Was _ ?”

 

The necromancer grinned, pleased to have gotten his attention, “A yes,  _ poor _ little tiefling. I set the spell for him to wake up a few days later. I wasn’t sure of the effects but to think that his friends believed him  _ dead _ . Ha! I can only imagine the trauma of waking up alone in a grave and having to dig yourself out of it. He was strong enough to withstand the blunt of the ritual you see, despite being half dead afterwards and never noticing it. How  _ interesting _ ... Now what was his name? Lucius? Lucas? Lu-“

 

Her eyes widened as she was hit with a Scorching Ray into the mouth. 

 

Caleb’s hands felt remarkably steady. 

 

“His name is  _ Mollymauk Tealeaf _ .” 

 

And she was lost into the fire. 

 

* * *

“You ok there?”

 

He felt Beau’s steady hand on his back as he wiped his mouth and lifted himself up from his kneeling position where he apparently lost both his lunch and dinner. 

 

“ _ Ja _ ... Just give me a moment.”

 

He saw Beau nodding off the corner of his eye. “Alright. We found some things that we want to know what they are... as well as some notes that we figured you might be the only one able to descifre them.” 

 

She sounded almost apologetic. As if she regretted not giving Caleb a chance to breathe. 

 

He grips her hand and looks up, “Show me.” 

 

Beau nodded once again, seemingly satisfied and led him to the center of study. 

 

At some point during his episode, somebody had moved the burnt body. He sent a silent thank you before immersing himself in the notes of the dead necromancer.

 

* * *

He finds it after an hour of reading.

 

Despite his best efforts to fully detest the woman, her notes were well detailed and organized. He managed to recognize Molly’s description in her notes and branch from there. 

 

The ritual itself was gruesome since she gave great detail on the numerous cuts that they had to make, and it required a lot of preparation and materials. Since it was fully experimental, there wasn’t a clear way of removing it from the body except...

 

“... it’s very similar to what Calianna mentioned that bowl had,” Caleb found himself muttering, “It’s only  _ really _ activated if somebody attempts to bring his soul back to become whole from where it was cursed to be. Meaning-“

 

“I can use my sword.” 

 

Caleb snaps out of his reading to glance at Yasha. He didn’t even notice that everybody had crowded around him to hear what he had to say. 

 

“ _ Ja _ . That would probably work. It’s a nasty entity, though. So we might want to find a way to weaken it before you dispel it.”

 

“But it’s  _ doable _ ,” and he thinks he sees a small smile in Yasha’s face and he nods. 

 

“Well,” Fjord starts, “Now all we need is a willing cleric to help us with a resurrection spell.”

 

“... Well, I don’t know if we told you guys, but Ophelia also mentioned that there was a hermit in the woods,” Beau points out. 

 

* * *

They agree to go back to Keg’s and rest before heading out into the woods to search for the hermit the next morning. That way, they also would have a chance to go over the plan of removing the curse during the resurrection.

 

That is, that was the plan until they see the destruction inside of Keg’s house. 

 

The Nein run inside and find Keg in a pool of her own blood. Caleb finds himself thinking she was lucky that Jester still had some spells available. As she was being healed, she manages to mutter something, “It was  _ her _ . It was that purple tiefling double crosser.”

 

They noticed that Molly’s body was  _ gone _ . 

 


	3. The Order

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Also known as: the party make it known that no one fucks with the Mighty Nein.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhh two more chapters to go in this story. This one is rather short but it was needed. 
> 
> Thank you to all the people reading my ramblings in this AU. I sort my feelings out through writing and this has been a nice way of doing it! 
> 
> Anyway, on to the chapter!

“I’ve always said that Caleb was very smart,” Nott proclaimed proudly. 

 

After coming to a destroyed house and a worse for wear friend, the Nein had sat down to discuss what they should do next. Caleb was the one that suggested using Frumpkin to track down the smell of Molly’s body in order to get an idea of where his sister could’ve gone with it. They still had his coat after all. Eventually they found themselves in front of another house, this time in the center of town, where they spotted some familiar robes on the people pretending to be minding their own business in the front. The Mighty Nein were currently huddled together at a distance to avoid being seen as they considered their plan of attack.

 

“It really isn’t that big of a deal,  _ schatz _ ,” Caleb commented, his cheeks a little bit pink because of the praise. 

 

“But we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for this!” Caleb sighed in response, but he let the subject matter drop, which Nott considered a win.

 

“Alright, everybody clear on the plan?” Fjord asked the group that was huddled together.

 

“I mean, it really just is we go all out at them, right?” Beau commented.

 

“Well, I mean not exactly-“

 

“It really  _ isn’t _ much of a plan,” Nott added.

 

“It’s pretty simple actually,” said Yasha.

 

“I mean, I suppose it could be called 60% of a plan,” Caleb mentioned as he appeared to be calculating the exact percentage of what the plan was in his head. 

 

“Is it  _ really- _ “

 

“Y’all, this is really  _ not _ the time.” Fjord said in exasperation, glaring at the ones around him. “Are we ready?” 

 

The Mighty Nein turned to look at each other for a moment. Then, a mischievous smile that Jester hadn't done in a while appeared on her face, “Let’s fuck shit up!”

 

* * *

With a carefully placed Sleep and several sneaky attacks from both Nott and Beau, the Nein managed to get into the house without alerting the members of the Order. At least, as far as they knew. Regardless, Nott had taken a couple of swigs from her flask already.

 

Something didn’t seem right with her. This whole infiltration could have been going well just simply because it was the first one that they’ve done all reunited in a while and they have all seemingly gotten better at it. Or maybe, it’s because the members of the Order  _ want _ them to come. 

 

Nott took another swig from her flask at that thought and continued on. 

 

Being the rogue from the group, she was the one checking for traps at the very front. Fjord and Yasha were not too far behind her, but she still disliked being this far from the main group. Before rounding up this last corner, she spotted what could be the main chamber of this house, and she actually managed to spot what would be a large number of people in that room. She quickly took out her copper wire.

 

“Ok, I think I see where they could all be clustered together. You can reply to this message!”

 

Fjord, as per usual, didn’t respond, but she felt the rest of the group come up behind her and his green hand came down on her shoulder squeezing gently. 

 

“Good job, Nott,” he whispered to her and then nodded to Yasha, whose eyes seemed to be fixed to the entrance of that room. Distantly, she heard Beau cracking her knuckles. 

 

Nott chuckled nervously, “We’re really doing this aren’t we?” 

 

Yasha takes out her sword, and Nott saw the familiar angry glow start up in her eyes. She felt a comforting hand on her head, as she saw Caleb step up to prepare to cast Slow to start this up. 

 

Beau came up to her other side and grinned sharply, “Well, the Order has yet to understand that _no_ _one_ fucks with the Mighty Nein.”

 

* * *

“Well, I suspected you all to come after him, but I certainly did not expect it in this manner.”

 

Nott gritted her teeth as she cursed herself for not voicing her suspicions. 

 

Soon after taking care of a number of members, others seemed to appear behind them and managed to tie them up, gag them and round them up in a chamber in the basement. This one seemed to include an altar in the middle of it, surrounded by arcane symbols. On it lay the familiar body of their dear friend and beside it was Lucien’s father grinning at them. From behind her, Belladonna finished tying her up and made her way towards her father. Nott made sure to hiss at her in response, making her flinch and avoid putting a gag on her. The rest of the Nein seemed to be glaring at the leader of the Order.

 

However, Belladonna, as she was walking up, looked at her and did a small motion with her hands. Nott’s eyes widened before testing her bonds. 

 

Ah..  _ Wait _ . 

 

She gave a small glance to the rest and caught Fjord’s eyes. His eyes widened in realization. Meanwhile, Aalam continued talking. 

 

“You people certainly can put up a fight, but we needed you in order to complete this ritual. I had a feeling that Lucien’s body holds many secrets.” He passed a hand gently through Molly’s curls causing Beau and Yasha to make angry noises at him. 

 

Nott ignored this. She felt her ties loosen. She just needed five minutes…

 

“Unfortunately, to perform what I had in mind, I needed some fresh… bodies. So not to worry, Mighty Nein. You are still of use to this Order.” He snapped his fingers as Order members started handing him what appeared to be components.

 

She noticed Fjord’s eyes widen in surprise. Caleb locked eyes with her and shifted a little, blocking Fjord’s hands from view. Three more minutes…

 

They started placing markings around Molly’s body and lighting some candles. 

 

Yasha, who seemed to be growling, suddenly stopped as she glanced at Nott before quickly looking ahead once more. Jester’s eyes widened as she realized what was happening. Beau gave a small nod to Fjord while still attempting to keep her eyes up front. 

 

One more minute...

 

Aalam gave a pleased noise before standing in front of them once more. “Now that this is done. Belladonna, bring forth the-“

 

A lot of things happened at once.

 

First, Nott’s managed to untie Caleb’s bonds with her Mage Hand who immediately cast Enlarge to a recently freed Yasha, who immediately grabbed a sword from the nearest Order member and started raging and attacking. 

 

Jester went behind Caleb in order to give him some cover and summoned her duplicate to give the group some backup with spells. 

 

Fjord summoned his falchion and cut Beau’s bonds as she immediately jumped to knock one of the members from the Order behind Nott with a kick. 

 

And Nott ducked under the legs of the Order member right beside her to start heading toward Molly’s body, just in time to see other Order members suddenly stab at each other. Confused, she looked at the front only to see Aalam’s figure currently being impaled by his own daughter. His eyes were widened in shock.

 

“You took my mother away from me,” she sneered, “ _ No more _ .”

 

And then chaos erupted. 

 

* * *

Even after being weakened by Belladonna’s surprise attack, Aalam still was a challenging son of a bitch to kill.

 

Nott felt herself almost in a daze as his body dropped to the ground once she had a very successful hit to his eye socket. She almost felt a wave of nausea come over her since he looked so much like Molly that she knew that this would not be a good kill to remember. 

 

Soon after, Belladonna managed to call off the rest of the Order’s members off and the Mighty Nein currently find themselves surrounding Molly’s body trying to figure out a way to bring him to a cleric. 

 

Beau  _ had _ suggested the hermit…

 

“Hey.”

 

All of them turned around to see Belladonna, who was still holding a recently bandaged arm to her side. 

 

“I appreciate what you did here. To help me, I mean.”

 

“We didn’t do it for  _ you _ ,” Beau commented.

 

She sighed, “In any case, you helped me with my cause… And as promised I will help you with yours.”

 

She side-stepped and let a robed member of the Order step forth. “A small part of our Order are Blood Clerics. This is one of them and is capable of reviving people even after they’ve been dead for days.”

 

She looked up at them, “Consider this the end of our business transaction.” And she walked off. 

 

The cleric was silent as he stepped towards Molly. Nott could see some red skin underneath his robe. The air turned tense as he approached the body.

 

Beau and Yasha took their weapons and pointed at him. “I assume you know not to do any funny business, right?” Beau asked.

 

The cleric turned to look up at her, before passing a gentle hand through Molly’s hair. Nott saw that he had similar features to the Gentleman, but was red and had orange hair. And he wasn’t sweating as much.

 

“Some time ago, Lucien showed me that this Order can do much good as long as we were willing.”

 

“Did you know Molly before this?” Jester asked. 

 

“Molly? … Ah, that’s what you call him… Yes, I was a member of the Tomb Takers once. Trust me when I say that I will help you with this ritual. I owe this person my life.” 

 

Jester studied him for a moment before stepping to the side with a small smile, seemingly satisfied. “Alright, cleric. May the Traveler guide you.”

 

Everybody else seemed to relax after that. 

 

* * *

In order to help with the ritual, Jester, Beau and Yasha needed to be ready once the shadow appeared on Molly’s body, which meant that Nott, Beau and Caleb were the ones that had to aid with the resurrection.

 

Nott walked beside Caleb, who was staring at the body as the cleric finished his preparations. She squeezed his hand. 

 

“We’re going to get him back, right?”

 

Caleb glanced down at her before continuing to look at the body. “I’m not sure… But we can certainly try,  _ ja _ ?”

 

“Alright,” the cleric announced, “We may begin.” And he muttered his incantations and started bathing Molly in this ethereal bright light. 

 

Beau stepped forward first. 

 

“Hey, obnoxious one. We’re still here, and we’re still  _ trying _ ,” unlike the last time, Nott noted, her voice wavered slightly less. She had his coat in her hands once she pulled it out of her bag.

 

“I can’t be the one that wears something like this. It’s not even in my color,” tears sprung up in her eyes before she quickly wiped them out. “So, stop making this so hard and come back to us. I need to yell at you for all this trouble you have caused.”

 

She places the coat beside him and takes a spot at his left. She nods to Caleb.

 

Caleb releases a shaky breath, before stepping forward and taking the heart necklace off. “Mr. Mollymauk… I… don’t think I am the right person to do these sorts of things. I don’t believe I have the right to ask for many things in this life. I don’t believe I deserve them.”

 

He paused for a second and took Molly’s right hand and placed the necklace gently on it. “You have always made sure to protect me, Mollymauk. And you were a bright beacon of light to this group. I can only light things on fire and cause death and destruction, while you can actually bring us together. So please come back to us, Mollymauk. Prove to me that you’re still very much the magical thing that I told you you were.”

 

He didn’t let go of Molly’s hand. 

 

Nott stepped up beside him and took a ring off her hand. She chuckled.

 

“You know, I didn’t trust you at all, Molly. I don’t think that ever changed… But I did admire you. You who backed me up whenever somebody sneered at who I was. You who didn’t mind dancing with a goblin in the middle of a tavern. You inspire me to be happy and to have a colorful outlook on things. ...There’s only so much that I can control when I get the itch. So, you better come back and we can share shiny things to compare. I know you’d like that.”

 

She sniffled a little bit, unaware that she had started crying. Caleb put a warm hand over her shoulder. The cleric gave them a brief nod before closing his eyes to finish up the ritual.

 

Suddenly, a familiar flash of black passed over the body. “Now!,” the cleric announced. 

 

Jester, who was in tears at this whole display, suddenly steeled herself and launched a Guiding Bolt from her hands. She managed to hit the creature who seemed to screech as it dropped to the side, right where Fjord had conjured up a black hole of tentacles. 

 

Out of the corner of her eye, Nott saw it start growing and growing and-

 

She saw Yasha suddenly charge at it, completely ignoring the fact that the tentacles made this difficult as she thrust her sword forward. As she used her sword’s ability, the air around them seemed to snap, as if a string was being severed somewhere. The creature shrieked louder. 

 

“Oh shut up,” Yasha said as she swung her sword down to it. 

 

And then, the screeching stopped. 

 

They all turned around to see Molly’s body begin to be enveloped in this bright light. She heard Jester, who had just come up to her side. 

 

“Oh please Traveler.  _ Please _ let this work.”


	4. The Tiefling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where is he? Who is he? Why is he here?
> 
> Mollymauk Tealeaf experiences limbo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhh this is the last chapter of my short fanfic! I might write some more in this universe about my headcannons about Molly's past and etc. I also think I'll write a little epilogue and post it separately.
> 
> In any case, I'm glad I managed to post this story as a whole! We all miss Molly and sometimes we need fix-it fics to pick us all up. 
> 
> Enjoy!

At first, all he sees is darkness. 

 

It is dark. Dark. Dark. Dark. 

 

And then he sees a shape at the distance. 

 

Weirdly enough, he can see in this darkness. He can make out shapes. This one, appears to be flat. 

 

Ah. It’s a mirror, he realizes. But there’s something not  _ quite _ right about it. 

 

But there he is. Standing in front of it. His purple skin, his red eyes, the white shirt he was wearing, the horns on his head, his hair in cut short-

 

Wait. 

 

He reaches up, the mirror image reacts as it should, but when he brings a hand to his hair he feels delicate curls instead of the short hair he expected. He runs his hand through the side of his face. 

 

It’s so strange, just like his missing tatto-

 

His eyes widen in realization, and the image’s eyes do not.

 

_ Wait _ ! 

 

Was that voice in his head? Or did he hear that? He sees the image’s face morph into something like panic as black tendrils much darker than the space around him erupt from around the mirror.

 

He turns around and runs. Runs. Runs Runs. He feels black tendrils reach to his shins. He runs faster.

 

_ Wait _ !

 

He sure as fuck is  _ not _ stopping. 

 

The darkness recedes. It’s more gray now. 

 

He trips when a black tendril grabs his leg. He swats at it with his hand instinctively and makes it back off. Then he looks at his hand. He could’ve sworn he carried blades… 

 

_ You can’t run forever _ !

 

He sure as hell can  _ try _ . 

 

He gets up and continues running. Gray turns to white. He’s surrounded by white now and he almost has to squint because it’s so bright here. 

 

_ Stop. Please. _

 

With dread, he turns around once more. He sees the entity from the mirror again. He sees himself.

 

No.  _ Not _ himself. His  _ other _ self. This is not him.

 

He spots black tendrils slowly coming up behind this entity and he takes a step back.

 

This person reaches out. 

 

_ No. Wait. Please _ .

 

Why should I? He doesn’t hear himself say it. But he feels like he did. 

 

The entity hesitates, and looks back at the black tendrils. 

 

_ Because we want to continue. _ The entity insists.  _ You have to listen to me. You don’t have much time. We don't have much time before- _

 

“Mollymauk.”

 

“Molly”

 

“Molly"

 

“Molly”

 

“Molly”

 

“Obnoxious one”

 

He startles. Were those voices? They seem familiar, nostalgic. As soon as he hears them, they’re gone. And he believes he misses them. Why does he miss them? Why?

 

_ Listen to me. _ The entity says.  _ You have to remember. _

 

Remember what? He thinks he shouts. 

 

_ Your life. Your past. _ The entity insists.

 

What if I don’t care about my past?! 

 

_ You care about this one.  _ The entity looks almost sad. 

 

He doesn’t understand. Why should he try to understand? Why does he think that this entity looks so sad? Why does it matter what he had done before? He could just simply stay here. He could start anew. Why should he care about something that happened-

 

“My name is Mollymauk. Molly to my friends.”

 

“Oh fuck you too.”

 

“Only steal from grumpy people.”

 

“You’ll get yours!!”

 

“She’s the charm.”

 

“Mr. Caleb.”

 

“Well, I know your name now!”

 

He turns. He sees that the white has receded to a shape. It looks like a passage. Around him the darkness spreads as he slowly starts remembering...

 

The circus. The demon. The start. The burning town. The cave. The road. The city. The sewers. The burning towers. The Gentleman. The candles. The Pit. The swamp. The fireworks. The snow. The kidnapping. The spear. The bad call. The madman. 

 

The Mighty Nein. 

 

Yes. He has to go there. He knows he has to go there. He reaches out towards the passage. He has to-

 

A black tendril loops around his ankle and pulls him away from the light. 

 

He screams. Or he thinks he screams. He struggles. He fights against this thing.

 

_ No _ . Let go. It should let him go. He hasn’t done enough. His time hasn’t been enough. He wants to see more. He wants to experience more. He wants to live. He wants to live. HE WANTS TO-

 

The entity pulls out a sword and steps over him… And cuts the tendril. It steps in front of him. The black tendrils surround the entity instead. Pining him and choking him. The entity’s passive face does not change.

 

_ Go on.  _

 

He stares at it. 

 

Why?

 

The entity looks at him. 

 

_ The past… Can be a terrifying thing. But you have to stop running from it.  _

 

The entity seems to pause, and then a very familiar wry smile that he had seen grace his face a thousand times seems to appear on this one’s. 

 

_ You’re lucky. You have friends who will face it with you. I never really had a family, only duties and followers. _

 

I don’t understand. Why me? 

 

The entity looks at him.

 

_ I am you. Just as you are me. At our core… we were always us. Except, you actually have a place you need to back to. So go back home.  _

 

Memories fill his mind. A dark laughter. A heated stare from a female face so much like his. People cheering with him. A tabaxi who encouraged him. An eerie caster with a wicked smile. A knife on his skin. So much pain. So many cuts. Dirt around him. Darkness. 

 

He finds himself crying. 

 

You had a family too. And a home.

 

The entity smiles.  _ Darling, my home has long since gone. Now go. _

 

He runs towards the light and jumps. 

 

* * *

 

He breathes harshly. Everything hurts. Why does everything hurt? He feels like he has the most awful hangover of his life. Why is this so? What-

 

He feels wetness on his cheeks before he registers the crying noises. 

 

Ah that’s right. His eyes are closed. 

 

Mollymauk Tealeaf opens his eyes. 

 

The blue tiefli- Jester- was crying above him.

 

The half- Fjord - was beside her, not crying but feeling. 

 

He registers a pressure on his lap as the small figure of a gob - Nott - was on it. 

 

By his side an annoy- Beau - was crying ugly tears. 

 

These strong arms around him - Yasha - seemed to hold him tighter. 

 

Then to the distance, holding his hand, some nice blue eyes - Caleb- seemed to be trying not to cry as well. 

 

Molly feels a sense of relief go through him. “Well, it was about time.” His voice felt like it has been going through sandpaper, but it causes the Mighty Nein around him to cry some more.

 

He feels relief. Elation. He feels home.


End file.
